1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for curing spinal stenosis which is an abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal between spinous processes, more particularly, to an apparatus of fixing spinous processes which can prevent the narrowing or widening of the spinal canal between spinous processes along the motion of the spine so as to enhance spinal stabilization.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a sectional diagram of the human spine.
There are a predetermined number of spinous processes 3 along the spine and a vertebral body 7 in opposite to the process. The spinal nerve 1 is positioned in a space between the spinous processes 3 and the vertebral body 7. Between each two of the spinous processes are positioned an interspinous ligament 6 and a ligamentum flavum 5. There are a supraspinal ligament 4 and a skin 2 from the spinous processes 3 toward the human back.
As the human body is aging, degenerative change occurs in the spine and the spinous processes are narrowing as shown in a dotted line (A). In addition, the ligamentum flavum 5 is losing its elasticity to be projected forward as shown in a dotted line (B). Such change makes the spinous processes 3 or the ligamentum flavum 5 compress the spinal nerve 1 or a newrite (not shown) connected to the spinal nerve 1, which is called as “lumbar canal stenosis”.
Therapy methods of the lumbar canal stenosis include drug treatment, physical treatment and surgery treatment. The surgery treatment is used unless the lumbar canal stenosis is cured by the other treatments. In the surgery, the bones and tissues compressing the spinal nerve are removed and a screw is used in immobilizing the spine in case the spine is instable.
However, the surgery treatment has to remove a wide range of the bone and tissues and patients usually results in losing a part of the spinal stabilization.
Such the surgery treatment requires general anesthesia and a long surgery time and a recovery time after the surgery. Accordingly, the elderly with weak immune systems frequently cannot have the surgery treatment.
Moreover, it disadvantageously happens that a satisfactory effect of the surgical operation cannot be made, because of surgical complications and other reasons. Also, the cost of the operation is disadvantageously high.
To overcome such the disadvantages mentioned above, methods of inserting a spine insert between two spinous processes 3 are proposed and a conventional related art is shown in FIG. 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, a conventional spine insert includes a spacer 10 inserted between two neighboring spinous processes 3 and a portion 11 for accommodating the two neighboring spinous processes 3. A groove is provided in the portion for accommodating the spinous processes 3 to couple the portion to a fixing strap. In addition, the spine insert may further include surface deformity portions 112 and 13 formed in surfaces adjacent to the spinous processes 3 to prevent the spinous processes 3 from separating there from.
In the related art, the surface deformity portions 12 and 13 might partially damage the spine while arranging the spacer 10 between the neighboring spinous processes 3.
Also, the spacer 10 is inserted between the two neighboring spinous processes 3 and the portion 11 for accommodating the spinous processes 3 is fixed by the strap after that. In this instance, the strap is wound around the spinous processes 3 several times to fix the spinous processes 3. That process has to be performed for an upper spinous process 2 and a lower spinous process 3 twice.
The conventional spine insert has the coupling structure which does not provide elasticity and it is likely for the spacer 10 to separate between the spinous processes 3 along the motion of the spine.
Accordingly, there are needs for a spinous process fixing apparatus having a simple structure which increases stiffness and stability of vertebrae and surgery easiness simultaneously, only to relieve the patients and doctors of burdens.